Initiative In Sport

Take Action: The Importance of Initiative within Sports Something that is often forgotten and overlooked is the power that an individual has to becoming a key difference maker within sites of any scale. As an athlete, I find that there are many problems and concerns I have with sports on varying scale. I have an issue with the physical condition I am currently in and the disadvantage it creates whenever I compete with my friends. I also have an issue with lack of non-profit sports programs for underprivileged children across the state that foster teamwork and collaboration. And on a greater scale, I have an issue with new regulation by the National Basketball Association (NBA) allowing the display of advertisements and branding on their jerseys.

Change can occur on a so called “medium” or meso scale. A form of change that I really want to implement is an athletic program which enables children from all sorts of backgrounds playing together in a free of charge camp or after-school program in which they play sports with each other. I have seen some athletic programs for underprivileged children, and I have worked in a few as well. However many of these programs just give the kids a few balls and let them play on their own as an extended sort of recess. The type of program that I want to create, rather than just being a resume builder or a day care for parents, it will focus on team sports and collaboration amongst the youth. A problem that is becoming more and more prevalent within high school and college athletics is the lack of camaraderie between the athletes. A common theme that I have noticed is athletes who only play for themselves and to build up their own name, rather than playing with their teammates and trying to win as a group. Research has found that “materialistic and individualistic” benefits of sports participation are common amongst youth meaning that children are in it for the “fame and fortune” instead of for developing skills and work ethics (Duda, 1989, p. 320). I want to try and change this through a new athletic program centered on collaboration and fostering growth rather than the toxic “me

They look at people not as humans, but rather as data and statistics, in order for them to maximize their profit. This offseason, the National Basketball Association (NBA) created a new rule that allows teams to put sponsor logos on their jerseys. The NBA has had logos on the courts before and even a small logo for the jersey’s manufacturer which this year will be Nike. However, this new rule is altering the game many love and admire. Andrew Heisel of the Los Angeles times says it best when he says that the “NBA is turning its players into running, jumping billboards” (Heisel, 2017, p.1). This addition to the jerseys allows NBA teams to further their profit gained from advertisements. These sponsors want to maximize the money from this investment and view the fans as data used to determine the successes and failures of certain marketing campaigns. The game is no longer about the passion, the fans, or even the players. We have allowed the game to evolve to being a means through which companies can make a large profit. I want to implement a change in the NBA and convince them to switch back to their old regulations. This is a hard challenge as the NBA itself is a company which survives on profit. However, if there are enough people protesting the NBA’s decision, the organization may cave in to the demands for fear of losing revenue off of ticket and jersey sales. In